Friday, August 29, 2008

God is a Muskrat, The Country Doctor's Wife. This post title sounds sac religious, but the story is pretty funny. Rechelle has a bunch of funny stuff from working in a garden center!

Easy Peasy Recent Comments Widget. Blogger Buster. Oh Blogger Buster, have I told you lately how much I love you??!! I can always find something useful or cool here. And with "Easy Peasy" in the title, how can I pass it up?!

Kenyan Gold Medalist Speaks About Marathon Training in Japan, Japan Probe. I was really happy for this Kenyan guy who won the gold medal. Wasn't he the first non-Ethiopian runner to win the Gold in a long time? Maybe I'm just mind muddled. But anyways, him training in Japan makes him THAT MUCH COOLER to me! I had no idea that people went to Japan to train for marathons. And he speaks Japanese!

Getting the Cats Out of My Urns, The Country Doctor's Wife. I don't know how many of you out there are cat owners, but those of you who are know exactly how this is! Cats will sit on ANYTHING! And usually the thing they're sitting on isn't what they're supposed to be sitting on. And when you try to shoo them off, they look at you like, "What are you doing? Are you crazy? You set this up for me didn't you?!" My cat tends to sit on papers that lay on the floor. Very annoying when I'm trying to do our finances and Willow keeps sitting on my piles!!! :P

Meet My New Best Friend/Drug Dealer. My Ice Cream Diary. The topic of this post is very appropriate for this blogger. I'm just guessing she likes ice cream. I like ice cream too. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. But I think my grandmother screams the loudest. She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES ice cream!

Excitement at the Dentist, Winters Wonderland. This story just cracks me up because it's totally me. Who hasn't gone to the dentist and done something even slightly embarassing. And Heather, I'm a gagger too! (I hope it's ok to call you Heather now. It's been a few years since YWs)

Thursday, August 28, 2008

I am thankful for weddings. Derek and I went to our friends, Yi and Sarah's wedding. What a wonderful day! The weather was perfect, they had a good turnout, and the grounds around the temple were beautiful. The flowers were just gorgeous!

It was so great to see them get married. It was the first live sealing that I'd been to. Derek and I are so happy that Yi's found his girl Sarah. He's been waiting for a while for just the right girl, and she's perfect! I couldn't think of a better woman for him!

They did a great job of incorporating American traditions and Chinese traditions into the day along with letting Yi's parents (who are not LDS, and therefore weren't able to attend the temple wedding ceremony) feel an important part.

Yi asked Derek to conduct a ring ceremony. Derek was really nervous, but once we got an outline ready for him, he felt more confident. He shared a scripture in 1st Chronicles 7:3-5 (I think that was the reference). It taught how a married couple should interact and resolve differences... with fasting and prayer.

After the ring ceremony, Sarah and Yi did a traditional Chinese tea ceremony wearing traditional clothing. They gave their parents tea and then received red envelopes containing money. They then bowed to their parents, to each other, and to the congregation, showing their thankfulness.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

This is one of my favorite travel stories to tell people. It's really one of those you'll-laugh-about-it-later kinds. Enjoy!

Derek and I decided that my birthday weekend would be a great time to go visit Jackson, WY. Derek's parents have a condo that they rent out just outside of town, and it's available for family use if we give enough warning time. So we decided to go with our friends from BYU, Caroline and Michael. We planned on going up Friday after classes and then returning Sunday in time for them to attend their ward.

We were so excited! This was our first trip with another married couple! On our way up, we talked, laughed, listened to music and sang. Caroline was one of my roommates freshman year and it was fun to hang out again. I'm not sure if we left Provo a bit later than we had planned, but I do remember for sure that we planned on getting to Jackson at a decent hour even with stopping for a quick dinner.

Well, we stopped about half-way there to eat. The four of us decided that a sit down place would be a good idea--to get us out of the car for a while. We had a nice dinner and then were on our way again. But we were having so much fun talking together, that Derek and Michael, our driver and navigator, weren't paying attention and got on the highway going East instead of North. This mistake wasn't noticed for about 30 minutes which meant that our detour set us back an hour. Usually this wouldn't have been a problem, we still would have gotten there at a decent hour, but there were other circumstances working against our favor...

About 20 minutes outside of Jackson, Caroline said, "I hope we get there soon, I really have to use the bathroom." Well, no sooner had she said that, we hit a road block, and there was quite a line of traffic backed up. At first, I wasn't worried. There is often road construction on rural highways, and usually it's just a matter of minutes before traffic starts moving again. It was not to be this time. A police officer knocked on our window and informed us that the highway was closed for three hours. THREE HOURS! AGH!

We asked if there were any other ways into town. We were SO CLOSE! We couldn't believe it! He said the only other way to get to Jackson was to go back the way we came and then go around the other side of the mountain. That route also took three hours so we decided to save the gas and just wait it out in the car.

So we were stuck out in the middle (well it seemed like the middle) of nowhere in the middle of the night. Caroline decided that she had to use the bathroom bad enough that she would just rough it and go out in the woods. Michael offered to go with her because it was pitch black outside. She later told me that as they were walking, some of the road crew told them to be careful not to go too far out in to the woods because there were bears. Great, bears! She eventually found a safe place.

We waited... and waited... and waited. We ran out of things to do in the car in the dark. Plus, we were tired. After a while we decided that the best use of our time would be to take a nap. But how do four people sleep in a little Jetta? Good question. The only position that even came close to being comfortable (and it wasn't really close at all) was for the guys to recline their chairs and the girls so sort of lay on/next to them. The four of us snoozed off and on until traffic moved again. I woke up with a HORRIBLE headache.

And if you thought that our trip couldn't get any worse, fooled you! It did! When we finally got to the condo, we expected the realtor to have left the keys under the mat for us. That's what she did for Derek's other brothers. We searched all over, but no keys. By this time it was just after two. We didn't have the number for the realtor. As bad as we felt about waking people up, we were sort of desperate, so we called Derek's brother Daryn in Provo to see if he knew. They had stayed in the condo just a few weeks before. He didn't know. Then we called Derek's parents in D.C., Dan (another brother) answered and none of them knew either.

Someone, don't remember who, had the idea to go to a nearby gas station to find a phone book to try to look up the realtor. We knew her name, but not her number. After calling a few numbers--again, we felt bad, but were D-E-S-P-E-R-A-T-E--and having no luck, we decided to stay at the gas station's motel. By the time we got checked in, it was after 3am. Even funnier, to save money, we all decided to share a room. Sort of weird... a co-ed sleepover...

The next morning, we found the realtor, got a key and a reimbursement for the motel stay. She apologized and said that she thought that we would have a key. Don't quite know how she would have come up with that conclusion. Other brothers have stayed there and needed keys, but she still thought we had a key. We took our luggage over to the condo and then went out sightseeing around Jackson.

Even though the trip up there was rough, we still had a good time. It was, to say the least, a very memorable birthday trip! Although, we didn't hear from Caroline and Michael for a long time afterwards. They say it was because of school work and such, but we were always afraid that it was because of the Jackson trip. :)

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Well, this wasn't exactly in the news, but it was great news for us!!! Our friends Yi and Sarah are getting married today! We are so happy for them! Congratulations Yi and Sarah!!! "They're getting married in the morning! Ding Dong the bells are going to chime!" Brownie points for all you who knows the reference for that!

Monday, August 25, 2008

I don't have much for Television and Movie Monday. I blame the Olympics. That's really all we've been watching for the last week or two, and I feel like they've been over conversated. Is that a word? Conversated? Well, I'm sure you know what I mean.

So I leave you with some crazy Japanese and Korea Television. The first two are Japanese, the second two are Korean. I hope you enjoy them and I hope they stay on youtube long enough.

I love how these guys are just hanging!

You'd think they'd just lay down, but where would the entertainment be in that?

The HUGE guy is Choi Hong Man. He's a really famous Korean K-1 fighter. At least famous in Korea and K-1 fighting rings...

Just a sampling of Korean commercials. They get even weirder and crazier, if you can believe it! But I love it!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Bloggers New "Reaction" Feature, Blogger Buster. I'm always a sucker for new, useless gadgets for my blog. At least, they're useless for me... No one ever seems to use these on my blog!

Ok, so this isn't really a link. Well, I made the picture a link, so click on that. And it's probably totally illegal putting this comic strip on my blog. So to make up for it, so go the comics.com site and read Rubes for a week. You won't be disappointed!

Reeve Korean Mission, Ok, so this blog might not be interesting to anyone but the Reeve family and me (I'm not related, I just lived in the same district they're in right now). But I think it's pretty cool to keep updated on the members in the Gangwon-do area.

Four-eared Cat, Fox News. The photo looks totally faked, but it's on Fox News. It should be credible! And the cat is SO CUTE!!!!

Sleeveface. This has to be one of the coolest things I've seen in a while! There's a whole movement (I'm not sure if that's quite the right term for it) where people take pictures with record sleeves strategically positioned. It looks way cool! There's also a video on how to sleeveface. There's one little slightly questionable part, but it's quick and if you can hack it, by all means, watch the video. It's interesting!

White Guy Mistaken for Michael Phelps, Japan Probe. I get comments like, "You really look familiar to me, do I know you?" or "Have I seen you somewhere before?" or "OH MY GOSH!!! YOU LOOK JUST LIKE THAT ACTRESS...umm, JULIA STILES!!!!" I even got Nicole Kidman once in Korea, but only when I had my make-up on.... Anyways, this video is insane! Japan Probe is one of my favorites!!!!

Marriage, Relishing Motherhood. She expresses her viewpoint and beliefs on the definition of marriage like I wish I could. She also does a GREAT job of outlining the consequences of changing the definition of marriage. It's definitely not just a matter of changing the meaning of a word.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

I was reading my friend Jodi's blog today (she always has cool tips and fun stories) and she mentioned that she was thinking of doing a cross stitch for her next craft project. More power to you Jodi!!!

I've been working on one off and on for the last 7 months or so. It's called "Old World Map," by Janlyn. It's on sale right now for $23.39, originally $41.99.

It 's quite large and detailed so I burn out pretty quickly. I get really into it for a week, and then have to take a month or so to recoup. Here's a picture of it.

It's so big I literally had to stand that far back from the computer so I could get my face in with it and not be all scrunched down and hunch-backed looking.

And yes, my computer is in the kitchen, on the kitchen table.

And yes, my kitchen/dinning area is tiny and I'm practically leaning against the refrigerator door. It's not quite as bad as it probably looks...

I am so thankful for great friends. I have been lucky enough throughout my life to have had the opportunity to be surrounded by good friends. The kind that lift you up and influence you for good. I am so grateful to all of them. I know my friends, past and present, have been a major part of the development of who I am now and who I am becoming.

I am so blessed to have married my bestest friend ever, Derek. He is the cheese to my macaroni! Anybody get the reference there? 10 points for you if you do! I don't like to hang out with just the girls very often. I always feel really strange becuase my best friend isn't there. When we can, we are ALWAYS together. I haven't witnessed first hand very many unhappy marriages in my life. I've only seen them on TV and movies or read about them in books. But the exposure I have had has shown me how blessed I really am!

Our new friends here in Caldwell, ID have taught us a lot as well... a lot about life, families, spirituality, and friendship. I have a lot to be grateful for. I was really nervous about coming back to the states. In Korea we had pretty valid excuses for not having very many friends (cultural and linguistic differences). I was afraid that our no friend trend would continue in Idaho, but without the valid excuses. But my fears were unwarranted. We weren't here but a week or two and quickly made great friends.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

I couldn't wait. I was putting together some "Way Back When Wednesdays" for future posts, and came across this story about yours truly. It is too good to wait another week for! I laugh out loud at myself. Hopefully I'm not embarrassing myself beyond belief. I probably am, but I also probably do that everyday anyways... So pretend that I didn't already post something for "Way Back Wednesday" this week and enjoy!

I'm not quite sure when this experience happened. After much discussion, my mom and I decided that I must have been around 4 years old. So, sometime around the year 1987, my family and I were visiting my Grandma and Grandpa McGrath. There was a lot of family around, and a lot of us were sharing the same bathroom(s).

I remember one night, before bed, my mom and dad were helping me get ready to take a bath, and before I got in I used the bathroom. Now this is where the traumatic part starts. At least it was traumatic to me, a 4 year-old.

I flushed the toilet and the water started swirling upwards. Normally, that wouldn't have been so bad, but it just kept going up. Little did I know that my then Uncle Verl had previously used the toilet. This had never happened to me before so I was watching it to see what would happen.

My dad quickly darted over and started to unclog the toilet. For all you readers who don' t know my dad, he is a Dahle's Big-and-Tall man. Not so much overweight as just large in stature. Like Nephi. So when he darts, it's noticeable, especially to a 4 year old (I hope that's not insulting. I did compare him to Nephi!).

That was the first thing that startled me. In that process, the silk flowers on the back of the toilet were knocked into the swirling water. I tried to get them out, but my mom who was on the other side of the bathroom started yelling... At least I remember it being yelling, but my mom never yells, so this must be one of those warped traumatic memories. And you have to imagine this next quote in a loud, panicky mother voice because that's how I remember it. It's not nearly as funny if you don't.

She yelled, "GET BACK! GET BACK FROM THE WATER! DON'T TOUCH IT! DON'T GET YOUR FEET IN IT! IT'S DIRTY!" And I specifically remember her holding me in her lap with my knees up so my feet wouldn't get wet.

Well, for a long time after that, I was deathly afraid of flushing the toilet because, for all I knew, toilets could overflow at any moment regardless of what you put in there! For many years after that, I would use the toilet, wash my hands, flush the toilet with my foot, and then RUN out of the bathroom.

This photo is in no way, related to this story. I am obviously not flushing a toilet back in 1987 in this picture. But it is a picture of me from around the right time period and after seeing my expression, I couldn't resist posting it. Is that vain?

Our ward invited a special guest to show us how to use powdered milk more efficiently. She was great! She was like a cooking show, but better because we got to sample the things she was making. We also got a hand-out with the recipes she demonstrated. Here are the five things that stuck out to me the most.

1. Almost gagging after tasting the plain yogurt. Why would she have a sample? To show the consistency of the yogurt? She had other flavors made from the plain yogurt so the consistency was already shown. I guess because people often use plain yogurt in recipes that they would need to know what it's like, but man, it's a downer for a sample!

2. Finding out about 3/4 of the way through the presentation that "instant" milk and "non-instant" milk are both powders. I thought that "instant" meant real milk from the store. How much more instant can you get? I was really confused when she said that instant was a bit cheaper than non-instant, but we'd use twice as much.

I thought, if instant is cheaper (still thinking real milk) why are we bothering with this presentation and with powdered milk? And why would anyone want to use non-instant (still thinking powdered milk) if they had to use twice as much? I guessed that powdered milk was good for storing.

This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened to me. I often jump to conclusions that seem reasonable at the time, but when I find out the real deal, I feel REALLY stupid as in this case. Finally I asked Tanya what the deal was with the instant and the non-instant and she explained that they were both powders but one mixed instantly and the other took more time.

Huh, DUH Rachel!!!

3. The sampling experience. We only got one cup or bowl (in my case it was a cup), so all our sample left overs collected in the bottom and mixed together. So by the end of the evening, we were getting yogurty, ranchy, milky, strawberry-ish, flavors in everything. UNLESS you got a HUGE serving of the sample. Then the majority of the sample was untainted. But of course, us polite women were all only taking tiny spoonfulls.

I had an inner struggle with whether or not to take a large sample or not. On the one hand, everyone was taking teensy bites and I would look like a complete pig if I took a big spoonfull. On the other, the samples were DELICIOUS! Well, most of the samples I was NOT wild about the plain yogurt or plain powdered milk. The chocolate kind was great. So by the time the chocolate icecream came around (remember, I have a jones for chocolate), I thought, "forget this, I'm eating ICE CREAM!!!" and scooped a HUGE serving in my cup and then into Tanya's as well. Hope she didn't mind. The ice cream was really good.

4. Meeting a new friend. Tanya was kind enough to pick me up and our new friend Francis. Francis is investigating our church and came to Enrichment with us. She's easy to talk to, fun and really nice. I want to hang out with her more. I hope she chooses our church! Oh, and congrats to her for getting married soon!

I met Derek during the second semester of my freshman year at BYU. He had been in my ward (like a parish or congregation but Mormon) the whole year, but for some reason, I never ever saw him. He says it's because of work, but I know for a fact he stayed up WAY too late watching movies and eating doughnuts and slept most of the day.

One day, after my Book of Mormon class, I was walking home with my friend. She had a huge crush on him and had asked to the Winter Preference (the formal or semi-formal girl ask guy dance). We were discussing who he was, because I had never heard of him, and he came up behind us!

A few weeks later, the ward's FHE (Family Home Evening) groups were re-organized and who was in my group? Derek! Being my clueless self, I wanted to get to know this guy my friend liked.

I noticed that we walked home the same way each day, and one evening walked up to him and told him that we should walk home together everyday. He was a little confused and/or scared, but agreed to it. The first day he didn't wait quite long enough, and I spent the whole time trying to catch up with him to no avail.

I also called him to look over one of my German assignments. I had to write a fairy tale in German and I heard that he lived in Germany for a few years, so I asked him to proof read. He ended up staying at my apartment chatting with me and my roommates until curfew and he had to leave... about six hours!

A few days later, I got a call from Derek. He asked how I liked sporting events or comedy things. I told him that I liked both of those things alright, and then he asked if I'd like to go on a date with him to one of those things. And of course, I said yes.

He decided to take me to a comedy thing held at Provo High. His roommate Isaac took my roommate Kristen, and his friend Yi took another Kristen who lived in my building. It was a lot of fun! After the comedy show, we went to Wendy's and then ate the food in the car in a parking lot on campus. The only problem was there were only 5 seats in Derek's car. Good thing I was Derek's date. I got to sit in the front. Plenty of room!

The Sunday after our first date, Derek came over to my apartment to hang out with me. Around dinner time he announced that he was going over to a Japanese girl's apartment to eat dinner, and then afterward make out (He swears he was joking, but still... Come on!). I got SO JEALOUS because Derek had gone on a mission to Japan and had self diagnosed "yellow fever," meaning he had a thing for Asian women, especially Japanese. I was so upset and didn't know what to do.

I knew I needed to talk to someone about my new crush, so I chose who I thought was my safest roommate to share this new and sensitive information with. Turns out, she had a crush on him too! That's all I needed more complications! I didn't want to make her or my other friend feel upset or jealous if I decided to pursue Derek.

Then I called my mom and had a good talk with her about what to do. My mom and I have a great relationship and can talk about EVERYTHING. She suggested to do what I felt best about.

I waited on MSN messenger for him to get home that evening. It was pretty late by the time he got on, and I was really stressing out. He suggested that I go over to his apartment to hang out. I didn't think that was a great idea because I had a test the next morning and I needed to either review that night, or get up early the next morning. Derek suggested that he help me that evening and I, being the giddy, boy-crazy girl, agreed.

We ended up staying up until 4am not doing much reviewing... mostly talking. Since we couldn't stay in his apartment after midnight, we went for a ride and then talked on the back steps of my apartment.

By 4am, I decided that I should go to bed. My test was at 10 the next morning. So I gave him a hug and looked up to say goodnight. I SWEAR I didn't intend to ask for or get a kiss, but I guess hugging and looking up at the same time is a clear KISS ME sign. So he kissed me. What a GREAT kiss! I was jumping up and down and freaking out silently--my roommates were sleeping--once I got inside where he couldn't see me.

My apartment held a dorky BYU tradition that if you kiss a guy, you have to buy your roommates ice cream. Well, since I hadn't really been dating Derek for all that long (less than a week), and heck I just met him two or three weeks earlier, they were VERY surprised to say the least when I gave them a bowl of ice cream wearing a huge grin! And thankfully, neither my roommate or my friend were upset about me dating Derek and not them.

We continued to date through the semester, and when it was time to go home for the summer, we decided to try the long-distance thing. Well, one thing led to another and on May 25th, 2003, Derek informally asked me to marry him, and then on June 6th, he officially asked me with a ring... my Mom's original engagement ring. It made the whole experience just that much more special!

A couple of our engagement photos. My roommate Caroline took the photos.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

I am a hopeless news junkie. I get so caught up in reading the news sometimes, that I have to refrain from reading. Other times, the news is either so unappealing because it's content goes way over my head or it's so depressing that I just can't read it. But more often than not, I usually enjoy it.

Today I read about an event from a few different news sources. My favorite of all time is The Christian Science Monitor. I know the title sounds weird, but it actually has really good, unbiased news. My Geography 120 professor, Professor Emmett, gave our class an assignment to read news articles about a specific region in the world and then write up a report on what we learned. He suggested The CSM and I've loved it ever since.

The event I read about was Pakistan's President Musharraf's resignation. To be honest, I was a little surprised that he voluntarily left. He's been holding on pretty tight for the last couple of years. Remember when he suspended the government and set up emergency rule?

Anyways, he resigned. And I'm not quite sure if that's a good thing or not. Some of the media said that he was a ally against terror. Others in the media said that he let the taliban hide out in the mountains. What I do know is that he was keeping democracy from really taking place in Pakistan. He came to power in a military coup and then stayed in power by what I can only imagine as unscrupulous means. So in that way, his resignation is a good thing.

So now that I've nerded you all out, I want to hear what you think of his resignation. Is it good or bad?

Sunday, August 17, 2008

We've been watching the Olympics this last week. Who hasn't? They're pretty addicting. I have a hard time just sitting and watching, so I usually read a book at the same time. Sound weird, but it works for me. And I had no idea how patriotic my husband is! He was jumping out of his seat when team USA made a huge comeback against team Belgium in beach volleyball, and the whole time pumping his fist and yelling "YEAH! GO USA! BEAT THOSE BELGIANS!!!!" He doesn't even like sports!

Anyways, it's been great to see how well it's going in China. There's been a lot of hype about it, and I'm glad that China's been showing their stuff. There have been the little glitches--the lip-synching girl which wouldn't have been THAT bad if it wasn't a DIFFERENT girl actually singing, and the digitally enhanced fireworks--but overall, I think the Olympics have gone great! And it's really great to see the world getting to know China a bit better. They've been misunderstood for a long time!

Movie-

We went to see The Chronicles of Narnia 2: Prince Caspian last Thursday evening at the dollar theater. Or should I say $2 theater. Now it's only $1 on Tuesdays. Darn! Anyways, we totally, completely, thoroughly enjoyed it! It was SO GOOD even though they changed quite a few things from the book. But it's been a little while since I've read the book, so maybe it's just my mind jumbling things up.

A lot of people have been saying how much better Prince Caspian is than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and how they enjoyed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but how it wasn't all that great. I totally disagree. I thought they were both excellent! This could be because the first one was more for kids, and the second one was geared more towards an older crowd. Who knows?! I just know I enjoyed both of them. I hope they keep up the good work!

Do you ever have those experiences when you're watching a movie and you recognize an actor, but you can't quite place them because they're in a different role, wearing different clothes? That happened to me in Prince Caspian. The actor playing the evil, conniving Miraz looked so familiar, but I just could not place it. About halfway through the movie, it suddenly came to me. I was so excited I slapped Derek's knee so hard, I'm sure everyone could hear it! He was Sergio Castellitto, an Italian actor who played a great chef in my favorite German movie Bella Marta! I was so surprised that he spoke English! I'd only seen him in that one German movie and I think he's only been in European stuff. Derek had a similar experience, but he couldn't figure it out until the end. The voice of Reepicheep sounded so familiar to us, but we couldn't figure it out. He was Eddie Izzard! Funny, funny guy.

I am so grateful for temples! What an amazing age we live in! There are so many temples around the world, and I have never been more than a day's trip away from one. Even in Korea! They bring so many blessings to our lives. I get such a warm feeling inside when I remember that because Derek and I were married in the temple, we get to be together for this life AND the next. Forever!

During the Twin Falls temple open house (THANK YOU Brent and Tanya for inviting us to go with you!!!), they played a DVD to introduce the purpose of temples and the history leading up to the building of the Twin Falls temple. In this short film, Elder Holland said something that made me stop and think. Not that it was a new concept to me, it was just one of those, hmm-I've-never-though-of-it-that-way-before, moments. He said that he couldn't think of Heaven without his family. It wouldn't be heaven without family.

It never occurred to me that other people thought of Heaven in a singular way. I guess I should have when society portrays heaven as individual angels sitting on mini-clouds playing harps. Well, maybe that was just one cartoon.... but still, I like our beliefs on Heaven. I want to be with my family forever!

Anyways, here's some pictures from the open house. The day was beautiful!

The sun was so bright! We tried to take a picture from the shady area.

And this is what we look like in the sunny sun.

I wish I could be more like the temple, less squinty.

It was impossible to get a picture of the entire front of the temple with us in it,so we settled on just the name and front door.

The Angel Moroni

Derek and Jane doing crazy faces

We went out to eat afterwards. We were all starving!!!I look a little angry, but I'm not. I was just in the middle of tellingthe waitress, "You have to hold the button down."

Friday, August 15, 2008

4 Random Things I love about my husband:1. He is a handy, handy man to have around2. He speaks English, Japanese, Korean, a little German and a little Chinese3. His teeth4. When he breaks out in a real smile in the middle of a crazy one

Today I Burnt Down the House and Glued Body Parts Together This story sounds a bit like my life some days. I tried to make croutons yesterday, but of course, I forgot they were in the oven and they turned into charcoal. Not a very good smell. And doesn't it always seem like when one thing goes really wrong, so do a bunch of other things?

Black Heels to Tractor Wheels Holy cow, can this woman write!!! I've never read so much detail in a how-I-met-my-husband story! And the best part? She's still writing it, there will be more to come.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

We had a GREAT weekend! Derek and I went to Jackson, WY with our friend Yi and his parents. Yi is getting married this month (CONGRATULATIONS YI!!!) so his parents came all the way from China for a month to be with him. He called us about a week ago and asked about Yellowstone. We offered to go with him and were lucky enough to be able to stay in Mom and Dad Cheney's wonderful condo! THANKS MOM AND DAD!!!

Yellowstone was so amazing. The last time Derek and I went, we only went as far as Old Faithful. The park is HUGE so we just picked the one thing to do that time. This time, we went around the entire middle loop! And it was great! We saw so much great stuff! Unfortunately, my camera ran out of memory (I haven't uploaded any pictures since we've been back in the states, April 08) and batteries not halfway through. Yi got some great pictures though and was kind enough to take my orders of what to take pictures of! :) He'll be sending me them soon!

Anyways, I decided that it was about time to upload and this slide-show is the result.... I think for it to work, you have to click on "full screen" Not sure why. I guess it's just a little quirky, like me.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

I'm in Jackson, WY right now. (By the way, thanks Mom and Dad Cheney for re-reserving the condo for us. Sorry we didn't take you guys up on the offer when we visited a couple weeks ago. We're so fickle with our travel plans!) And it's 5:56 right now. Not my normal time to be awake. And neither is 3:30, which is the time I woke up this morning...

We went to the Bar-J Ranch last night for their dinner and show. It was WONDERFULLY FUNNY! I enjoyed every minute of it! The five singing cowboys they have worked so well together! It didn't even sound scripted! Derek was laughing so hard he cried! But before dinner even started, I started to get a headache. Not a little headache, a HUGE MIGRAINE! And it just kept growing throughout the whole performance. I couldn't believe it!

After the show I was so miserable. My head hurt so badly, I went through cycles of near head explosions and pukings. By the time we got to a store to get aspirin, no... make that Excedrin Migraine, all I could think about was not puking and not exploding.

We got home, and after a LONG hot shower and two Excedrins, I was feeling better... fuzzy, but better, and I went to sleep. BUT, I woke up at 3:30 with the beginnings of another super headache. So I took another couple of Excedrins. Excedrin has A TON of caffeine in it. And so did the snack food I ate with it so I wouldn't get sick, a Kit-Kat bar. So, I've been awake since 3:30... It's going to be an interesting day tomorrow... I see a nap in my future.

And don't worry, I'll post more of the highlights of our Jackson trip later.

Monday, August 4, 2008

One of my blog friends has started a blog train! It's pretty cool. You post your name and blog site on the "train" and then leave a comment on the person's blog above you. The next person who posts on the train will go to your site and leave a comment. It's a great way to get new readers!

For those of you who don't know, we love the Ortons! They are so nice to us! For example, Derek went to scout camp this last week. I was a bit lonely, and Tanya noticed. She invited me over to her house for the evening last Tuesday and I ended up staying there until 2AM!!! Crazy aren't we?! Brent was the responsible one and went to bed about 12:45, but Tanya and I stayed up and watched The Music Man. The one with Matthew Broderick. The only one really worth watching in my opinion. :) Anyways, I digress, back to our craziness. We both had responsibilities the next day. I go to my parents at 9am. She has three young children who I'm sure wake up early, EARLY, and desperately need their mother's love and attention. AND their family was going to leave for Rexburg in the afternoon! That's a 5 hour drive!

So I tried calling them Wednesday to see if they made it to Rexburg alright. I was afraid that they might have fallen asleep at the wheel because of their lack of sleep. No answer. My call went directly to voicemail. I tried calling again on Thursday. Same thing, voicemail. And on Friday. And on Saturday. I started to worry. Maybe I really did indirectly cause their deaths! How awful that would be! They weren't there at church either. I was half expecting (In my over active worrying imagination) the bishop to stand up and announce an awful tragedy, that the Ortons had died in a car crash. But thankfully, that didn't happen. Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't panicky. Like I said, I was just over imagining and worrying. I get that from my mom...

I decided that I would call again on Sunday evening. Brent works for the city of Caldwell, and I figured he'd be back at work Monday morning. So I called, and Tanya answered! They weren't dead, just her phone. Yay! And even better, they stopped by our house on their way home. They must love us too!

Friday, August 1, 2008

I found some great tutorials on LucyKate Crafts. She makes some REALLY CUTE softies. Before looking at this website, I had no idea what softies were! They're cute little critters made out of felt and fabric. I spent all evening last night making a toadstool and an owl while watching the X-Files, Season 1. And then this morning I made a Totoro knock off!